Cha shou

If your knowledge of Avengers movies begins and ends with the exploits of Captain America and company, you really should check out The Masked Avengers: they haven't got 'superpowers' as such, but their moves are just as awesome, and all executed without the aid of millions of dollars of CGI.

The film follows a group of highly trained martial artists dedicated to hunting down a gang of vicious masked killers for hire whose weapon of choice is the trident. After tracking the masked assassins to the town of Jingyang, the brave fighters find themselves attacked and killed one-by-one. Will they uncover the identities of the gang's three leaders (whose golden masks come with fancy coloured beards) and make them pay before it is too late? Of course they will…

To be honest, there are just a few too many very similar characters to keep track of to make this a wholly satisfying martial arts classic, but with so much impressive kung fu, and lots of bright red blood (gory impalements and slashing aplenty), the film still qualifies as an essential slice of Shaw Brothers chop-socky madness.

After much mystery and murderous martial arts mayhem, the whole thing boils down to an absolutely stunning showdown between the baddies and the surviving good guys (who get a little help from an ex-leader of the gang turned hero, played by Philip Kwok), the fantastic finale taking place at the villains' booby trapped temple, which comes equipped with acid jets, arrow traps, and deadly spiked doors.

Although we're a couple of venoms down (and feeling it), this film generally has enough about it to make up for the feeling that a couple of faces are missing – particularly for a viewer like me, who only really knows them as a mob, rather than individuals. In this film we have a ruthless gang, all wearing masks and exclusively fighting with tridents, killing people with anonymous abandon. They mess with the wrong group, leading to a hunt to track down the masked gang – however with their identities a secret, can anyone be trusted? And who is the deliberately mysterious cook Kao Yao, who seems to have more interest in the gang than he lets on?

Although there are too many characters in this film, it does have a good sense of plot and mystery to it, as we build well towards a final confrontation where identities and loyalties are exposed for all to see. The plot is not as twisty and turny as it could have been, there is a good sense of the characters not all being what we think they are, and being part of a mystery rather than the normal black hat/white hat situation. At times perhaps it doesn't have as much action as you would like, but the intrigue over the gang's identity helps keep things interesting. The fights using the tridents are okay; mostly they produce acrobatics and baton-twirling rather than real tension in the fight sequences.

This is not the case in the final battle though; this is set in a temple, with dramatic entrances, plenty of violence, dramatic deaths, and some very good choreography in the action, which mixes the acrobatic skills but also has a brutality to it that adds value. The cast may seem full in some regards, but also the lack of a couple of the main crew makes it feel like there is a gap too. This hurts some of the actors who I did not know, since they do remind one that they would not be there if option 1 had stayed with the mob. Kwok is still very good though and leads the cast well, along with Sheng Chiang.

Overall Masked Avengers may be missing a few actors that we are accustomed to seeing, but generally it works well thanks to a good plot, solid action, and a particularly brutal final battle.

The last 12 mins of the movie is epic , just breathtaking fight scenes. A must watch movie.

With possibly no more than three exceptions, I never met a movie by Run Run Shaw I didn't like. THIS one I Like - it's got the Venom posse, it's got the tried and true formula - betrayal, murder and revenge - that works, it's got awesome moves (WHO GIVES A RIP IF THEY USE WIRES), and most of all, the villans get theirs in the end.

Works for me.

After watching this movie for the first time yesterday, I was debating with myself as to how to rate it. Then I slowly started to realize that it is without a doubt one of the best martial arts movies I've ever seen! Even though I was dead tired, I couldn't keep my eyes off the fight scenes for even a second, and that goes for pretty much all the fights, not just the last one.

The story is actually a bit refreshing, and at least tries to be a little bit more original than usual, and I must say it kept me hooked for most parts throughout, and that's not bad for a Kung Fu-movie. However, it suffers from the same flaws as all venom movies; so many characters who look and act alike are thrown in our faces and they die like flies. There's no way you can keep track of who's who and who does what, just as usual. Chiang Sheng sums it up pretty perfectly when he dines with Lu Feng in the beginning: "I must introduce you to my men, but still with so many I can't introduce them all". That's exactly how I feel too. Lo Meng and Su Chien are absent from this movie, but it's actually forgettable since the "substitutes" make a really good job and the extras are just as good as ever. Lo Meng and Su Chien are, as we all know, usually killed of halfway in most movies anyway, so Masked Avengers doesn't really suffer from it.

The fighting is outstanding, and simply flawlessly choreographed. The venom mob really got their fighting choreography together in the early 80's and the result of their hard work can be seen here. The end fight is epic with tons of lethal traps, outrageous deaths and slick editing.

A movie that you can watch a 100 times and not get tired of. Watch it immediately!